naught

English

Alternative forms

• nought

Etymology

From the Middle English naught, nought, naht, nawiht, from Old English nawiht. Cognate with West Frisian neat (“nothing, naught”). Doublet of nought. Equivalent to ne +‎ aught.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: nôt, IPA^(key): /nɔːt/
• (US) enPR: nôt, IPA^(key): /nɔt/
• (cot–caught merger) enPR: nät, IPA^(key): /nɑt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: not (in accents with the cot-caught merger), knot (in accents with the cot-caught merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔːt

Pronoun

naught

1. Nothing.

   Naught can come of this, you mark my words.

   • 2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 56:

     My day starts where yesterday's had finished - at St Pancras, only this time on Thameslink and the subterranean station I first visited when it was naught but an empty box. Now it's a vital cross-London interchange.

Derived terms

• aleph-naught
• bring to naught
• come to naught
• do-naught
• good-for-naught
• more often than naught
• set at naught

 

Translations

nothing

• Bulgarian: нищо (bg) (ništo)
• Faroese: einki n
• German: nichts (de)
• Middle English: nought
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: null (no) m

• Plautdietsch: nuscht
• Romanian: nimic (ro)
• Spanish: nada (es)

Noun

naught (countable and uncountable, plural naughts)

1. (archaic) Nothingness.
2. (chiefly US, old-fashioned) Alternative spelling of nought

Derived terms

• naughty

Translations

nothingness

• Czech: nicota f
• German: Nichts (de) n
• Mandarin: 无 (zh) (wú)
• Middle English: nought
• Portuguese: nada (pt) m
• Russian: ничто́ (ru) n (ništó)

Numeral

naught

1. (chiefly US, old-fashioned) Alternative spelling of nought

See also

• aught
• naw
• negative
• no
• noot
• not
• nought
• nowt
• ought
• zip

References

• “naught”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Middle English

Pronoun

naught

1. Alternative form of nought

Adverb

naught

1. Alternative form of nought

Adjective

naught

1. Alternative form of nought

Noun

naught

1. Alternative form of nought